Louder for those in the back: Workforce development in the U.S. defense and industrial semiconductor industry, always an important issue, is even more critical today as big federal dollars for domestic production come online.

Researchers at Purdue University have invented what they call “body internet.” It’s something that could revolutionize how all of us interact with technology. The magic of this technology happens in small computer chips. The prototype is attached to the back of a phone. It uses the human body as a conductor and allows the transport of information simply by touch.

A phone, a few photos and artificial intelligence have stirred controversy and shattered the privacy of several teens at a New Jersey high school after they learned that nude images of them — created via AI — were circulated in group chats.

Control of atomic vacancies with sound waves could improve communications and offer new control for quantum computing

Apple announced on Sept. 12, 2023, that it plans to adopt the USB-C connector for all four new iPhone 15 models, helping USB-C become the connector of choice of the electronics industry, nine years after its debut. The move puts Apple in compliance with European Union law requiring a single connector type for consumer devices.

A team of Purdue University researchers has received a $1 million (AU$1.5m) grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to improve feed efficiency and consistency on dairy farms by using automated video analytics systems.

“Farmers are trained to make a lot of decisions based on things that they see,” said Amy Reibman, the Elmore Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, who specializes in video analytics for animals. “I’m an engineer. I want to solve problems. We should be able to design a system that can augment their abilities.”

A microelectronics workforce program involving Hoosier universities will receive $19 million from the U.S. Department of Defense to ramp up research and add new partners.

The United States is trying to shore up domestic semiconductor supply chains and address challenges in staffing. The Semiconductor Industry Association forecasts that by 2030, the field will face a shortage of 67,000 engineers, technicians and computer scientists.

Santiago Torres-Arias runs in-toto, an open metadata standard framework for supply chain attestation, and Sigstore, a standard for signing, verifying, and protecting software.